McCloud Remedy Guide | Public-Sector Pensions

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The McCloud remedy, explained

2 min 46 s · Captions on · Official sources checked 30 September 2026
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Your scheme's guide

NHS

1995/2008 Sections and the 2015 Scheme

Teachers

Final salary and career average

Civil Service

classic, classic plus, premium, nuvos and alpha

Armed Forces, police and fire

The uniformed schemes

Judges

The judicial options exercise

Local Government

The automatic underpin

When you choose depends on whether you had retired

If you were still working, or had a deferred pension, on 30 September 2023, you choose when you retire. If you were already receiving your pension, you have an immediate choice: normally within a year of your first remediable service statement, and it cannot be reversed. Several schemes, including the NHS, Civil Service and Armed Forces, have announced delays to these statements.

What is the McCloud remedy?

When public-sector pension schemes were reformed in 2015, members who were within about ten years of their normal pension age on 1 April 2012 were protected and kept their old scheme. Some a little further away had tapered protection and moved later. Everyone else was moved to the new career-average schemes. The Local Government Pension Scheme in England and Wales changed a year earlier, in 2014, and protected older members with a final-salary underpin instead.

On 20 December 2018 the Court of Appeal found, in the judges' and firefighters' cases (McCloud and Sargeant), that this protection was unlawful direct age discrimination. On 27 June 2019 the Supreme Court refused the government permission to appeal, and the government accepted that the ruling affects every public service scheme.

The Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022 puts this right. For most schemes its core provisions came into force on 1 October 2023. HM Treasury estimated that around 3 million people are in scope.

Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/7/notes/division/3/index.htm

Who is in scope

The law sets three tests. You are in scope if:

•You were in pensionable service in a public service pension scheme on 31 March 2012 or earlier

•You have pensionable service in the remedy period

•You did not have a disqualifying gap: a period of more than five years out of public service pensionable service

If you first joined a public service scheme on or after 1 April 2012, you are not in scope.

Two schemes add a condition:

•Judges must also have been under 55 on 1 April 2012.

•In the Local Government Pension Scheme you must have been under 65 for all or part of the remedy period.

You can be in scope whether you are still working, have left, or have retired.

Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/7/section/1

The remedy period and rollback

For most schemes the remedy period runs from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022. In the Local Government Pension Scheme in England and Wales it starts a year earlier, on 1 April 2014; in Scotland and Northern Ireland it starts on 1 April 2015.

What happened to your service:

•If you had moved to the reformed scheme, your remedy-period service was moved back ("rolled back") to your legacy scheme. For most schemes this took effect on 1 October 2023.

•If you had full protection, you were never moved. You stayed in your legacy scheme.

•From 1 April 2022 everyone still in service builds pension in the reformed scheme. The legacy schemes closed to service after 31 March 2022, but you keep what you built in them.

Being in the legacy scheme for the remedy period is not the end of it: most affected members then choose which set of benefits they want for those years. In the NHS, members who had full or tapered protection are offered that choice too.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/chapter-1-pension-scheme-guidance

When you choose

When you choose depends on where you were on 30 September 2023, the day before rollback.

Already retired (immediate choice):

•If you were already receiving your pension, or were the representative of a member who had died, you get an immediate choice.

•You normally have one year from your first remediable service statement to choose, although the scheme can allow longer.

•The choice cannot be reversed.

Still working, or left with a deferred pension (deferred choice):

•You choose when you retire. This is the "deferred choice underpin".

•Your scheme sends a remediable service statement showing the benefits under both options, and how and when to choose.

•If you do not choose, the scheme decides for you.

Details vary by scheme. NHS Pensions, for example, gives 12 months from the date in your statement and, if you do not reply, pays 1995 or 2008 benefits for the remedy period. The Armed Forces give deferred choice members six months, and pay legacy benefits if you do not choose.

Two schemes work differently:

•Judges take part in an "options exercise" instead of choosing at retirement.

•The Local Government Pension Scheme has no choice. When you take your pension, your fund compares the career-average pension you built in the remedy period with the final-salary pension you would have built, and adds any difference. This happens automatically.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/chapter-1-pension-scheme-guidance

Legacy and reformed schemes, scheme by scheme

The remedy compares your legacy scheme with the reformed scheme:

•NHS: the 1995 and 2008 Sections, and the 2015 Scheme

•Teachers: the final salary scheme, and the career average scheme

•Civil Service: classic, classic plus, premium and nuvos, and alpha

•Armed Forces: AFPS 75, AFPS 05, EDP 05, FTRS 97, RFPS 05 and NRPS 11, and AFPS 15

•Police: the 1987 and 2006 schemes, and the 2015 scheme

•Firefighters: the 1992 and 2006 schemes, and the 2015 scheme

•Judges: JPA 1981, JUPRA and the Fee-Paid Judicial Pension Scheme, and JPS 2015. Since 1 April 2022 judges build pension in JPS 2022, which is not registered for tax.

•Local Government: career average since 2014 in England and Wales, and since 2015 in Scotland and Northern Ireland, with the automatic underpin described above.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/how-the-public-service-pension-remedy-affects-your-pension

What it means for your pension tax

Rollback can change your pension input amounts, and so your annual allowance charges, for the remedy years. Your later retirement choice does not change those amounts again.

How the tax years are handled:

•For tax, the remedy covers 2015/16 to 2022/23. HMRC calls 2015/16 to 2018/19 the "compensation period" and 2019/20 to 2022/23 the "tax administration framework period".

•Changes go through HMRC's "Calculate your public service pension adjustment" service, not your Self Assessment tax return. That includes annual allowance charges for 2022/23 if you are affected.

•To use the service you need your Remedy (or Remediable) Pension Savings Statement from your scheme.

Refunds and new charges:

•The service works out refunds, and new, reduced or extra charges.

•For 2019/20 to 2022/23, if you paid a charge yourself, HMRC refunds you directly and pays repayment interest. For 2015/16 to 2018/19, your scheme may pay compensation instead.

•If your scheme paid the original charge through Scheme Pays, the refund goes into your pension benefits rather than to you in cash.

•Scheme Pays is available on a mandatory basis for the amount the remedy adds to a charge, even below the usual thresholds. The deadline is 6 July 2027. That already applied to members who had started taking their benefits before 1 October 2023. Since 14 July 2026 it also applies to members who were still working or had a deferred pension on that date. If you miss it, the request becomes voluntary Scheme Pays.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/changes-in-your-annual-allowance-following-the-public-service-pensions-remedy

Claiming back advice costs

NHS Pensions and Civil Service Pensions say most members should not need paid advice to make the choice. Where fees can be claimed back, the rules differ by scheme and by nation:

•NHS (England and Wales): the Cost Claim Back Scheme covers IFA advice on your remedy choice up to £500 including VAT, and accountancy for using HMRC's service up to £1,000 including VAT, per piece of advice. Apply within 12 months of receiving your Remediable Pension Savings Statement or first remediable service statement.

•Teachers (England and Wales): IFA fees are not reimbursed routinely. In more complex cases, such as tax issues you could not reasonably deal with yourself, claims are considered, normally up to £500. Fees paid before you received and considered your statement are not covered.

•Civil Service: up to £500 for advice on your tax position, if you received a Remedy Pension Savings Statement and your annual allowance charge changed or is new. Invoices or receipts are needed.

For other schemes, check your scheme's own guidance before you pay for advice.

Source: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/public-service-pensions-remedy-mccloud/nhs-cost-claim-back-scheme

McCloud, Annual Allowance, and Tax Corrections

Revised statements

Rollback can change your pension input amounts for the remedy years. Your scheme sends a Remedy Pension Savings Statement, and you need it to use HMRC's adjustment service.

Charges can move either way

HMRC's service works out refunds, and new, reduced or extra annual allowance charges. Keep earlier Self Assessment submissions and Scheme Pays elections for comparison.

The retirement choice and tax are separate

Your later choice of benefits does not change your remedy-period pension input amounts.

Evidence pack

Keep annual benefit statements, remediable service statements, pension savings statements, payslips, tax returns and your scheme's letters together for your adviser or accountant.

Do not ignore old tax years

If you had annual allowance charges, Scheme Pays elections, or Self Assessment entries between 2015/16 and 2022/23, treat McCloud as a tax-review trigger rather than just a pension-benefit choice.

Related guides

These related guides cover the next questions that usually come up after this topic.

1995/2008 Scheme

Understand the NHS legacy benefits being compared.

Scheme Pays

How a charge can be paid from your pension.

Annual Allowance

Check whether revised statements affect your pension tax.

What to do

Check whether you are in scope

In service on or before 31 March 2012, service in the remedy period, and no gap of more than five years.

Watch for your scheme's statements

Your remediable service statement shows both options. A Remedy Pension Savings Statement shows any change to your pension growth.

Deal with the tax through HMRC's service

Remedy changes to annual allowance charges go through HMRC's adjustment service, not your Self Assessment return.

Make your choice in time

If you had already retired, you normally have a year from your first statement. Otherwise you choose when you retire.